Dr. Mary Chiu is a Researcher at The Cyril & Dorothy, Joel & Jill Reitman Centre for Alzheimer’s Support & Training (Reitman Centre) at Mount Sinai Hospital and a clinician scientist at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute.
The Reitman Centre was established to address the complex needs and challenges of informal carers caring for persons with dementia at home. It provides innovative training and education programs for informal carers and health professionals.
Dr. Chiu’s research interests lie within geriatric psychiatry, specifically the social psychology of older adults and the concept of psychological resilience in the context of informal caregiving and dementia.
Her primary research aim is to identify individual level factors (e.g. psychological and somatic well-being) and community-level factors (e.g. social-connectedness and workplace enablers and barriers) that promote resilience and effective coping by exploring the interactions within and across these levels using an ecological framework applied to informal carers.
In addition, her work aims to identify components of group psychotherapy programs that make them effective and relevant for informal carers. Mixed methods research is employed in her work.
Dr. Chiu is co-principal investigator on the “Caregiver team” within CIHR Canadian Consortium on Neurodegeneration in Aging’s “Quality of Life” theme. The multisite, collaborative research team leads and conducts national studies aimed at investigating the clinical effectiveness, national implementation and rural adaptation of the Reitman Centre’s Working CARERS Program, which is an evidence-based psychotherapy and skills building intervention designed for individuals with the dual roles of informal carer and employee.
Dr. Chiu is also involved in a project funded by Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) that aims to reduce the rate of social isolation in senior caregivers in Toronto by identifying and engaging senior caregivers, connecting them with community-based education activities and building public awareness of resources.
Currently, Dr. Chiu is supervising two MScOT candidates from the University of Toronto on a phenomenological study to explore the effect and impact of an art-based creative program designed for persons with dementia and their family members.
Dr. Chiu holds an MSc and a PhD from the University of Toronto. She is appointed as a Lecturer at the Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto.
